Short Fiction · Chapter
The Badger explained
This chapter traces the origins and evolution of the badger's ability to assume human form and bewitch people in Japanese folklore.
What happens
This chapter traces the origins and evolution of the badger's ability to assume human form and bewitch people in Japanese folklore. It begins with the first recorded instance in the second month of the thirty-fifth year of Emperor Suiko, where a badger sang like a man. The narrative then recounts a romantic tale of a Michinoku girl and a salt maker, whose nightly trysts lead to the girl attributing the man's song to a badger to deceive her mother. This story spreads, and soon many claim to hear the badger's song, and eventually, a man claims to have seen the badger singing. The chapter concludes with a philosophical reflection on belief, drawing parallels between the badger's bewitching and the human tendency to believe in things, citing Yeats's The Celtic Twilight.
Themes in this chapter
Folklore and the Supernatural
The chapter explores the origins of a supernatural folk belief—the badger's ability to take human form and sing—and how it spreads through a community.
Illusion vs. Reality
The chapter questions the distinction between being bewitched and believing one is bewitched, suggesting that belief itself creates reality.
Characters to notice
- The Badger
Central figure of the chapter; first assumes human form and sings, becoming a legendary bewitcher.
- the Japanese
The people of Japan who spread the story of the badger's song and come to believe in its bewitching powers.
Key passages
“But how much difference is there after all between being bewitched and believing that one is bewitched?”
The line between actual enchantment and the mere belief in enchantment is negligible.
This rhetorical question underscores the chapter's theme of illusion versus reality.
“Should we not believe in that which lives within us just as our forefathers believed that the badger bewitched men?”
We should embrace our inner beliefs just as our ancestors accepted the badger's power to bewitch.
This encourages a philosophical acceptance of subjective belief as a guiding force.